2021 reread: I actually liked this a Lot more than I did initially. Nikolai is less annoying to me and coming off the previous books, I’m honestly super here for Zoya and Nina’s storylines. There’s some more interesting worldbuilding and taking fascist sexists down a peg.

I was probably just not in the mood for it when I read it last as well. And I would have only known who Nina was out of everyone, pretty much. Nikolai gets a cameo in Six of Crows but he wasn’t a wise cracking annoying man child in it. He was his altar ego, for the most part. Reading what happened to him gave me some empathy for this story, though, to be honest, it takes a backseat to Zoya and Nina for me.

My largest gripe is the dialogue. I don’t find the quips charming, I find them annoying. But the world building, magic, and characters and their arcs are all enjoyable. I’ll probably check out the next one too. So far, my favourite part of Grisha verse is still the Six of Crows duology. But there was enough reference to the original trilogy that I haven’t finished yet that I might go back and finish the last two books. Sounds like some cool stuff happened.